Anthony E.Varona

Professor of Law Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs

Dean Tony Varona teaches Contracts, Administrative Law, Media Law, and Introduction to Public Law, in addition to serving as associate dean for faculty and academic affairs. Before becoming associate dean, he was the director of the SJD Program. Prior to joining the WCL faculty in 2005, he was an associate professor of law at Pace Law School in New York. Before that, he served as general counsel and legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil rights organization. He built HRC's legal department, directed its legislative and regulatory lawyering and appellate amicus work, launched national law fellow and pro bono attorney programs, and served as counsel to HRC's board of directors and the organization's corporate, educational, and media initiatives.

Dean Varona taught as an adjunct law professor for three years at Georgetown University, and served as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School. He serves on the board of directors of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and is a member of the Society of American Law Teachers and the Hispanic Bar Association of Washington. He has served on the boards of the Human Rights Campaign and the Alliance for Justice, was on the New York Advisory Board for the American Constitution Society, was founding chairperson of the AIDS Action Council's Legal Advisory Board, and served as a member of the Judicial Selection Steering Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Dean Varona practiced communications law at the Washington offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, PC. He began his legal career as an honors program attorney for the Federal Communications Commission.

Dean Varona's scholarship has included articles concerning media and communications law, civil rights, employment discrimination, and hate crimes, published in a variety of notable law journals. He has lectured widely on these topics, and has appeared as a legal commentator on CNN, Headline News, Fox News Network, Court TV, MSNBC, and in a variety of major daily newspapers and legal periodicals.

Dean Varona serves on the Faculty Review Board of the Administrative Law Review, and as faculty advisor to the Latino/a Law Students Association (LaLSA). He was honored with the 2009 Hugh A. Johnson, Jr., Memorial Award by the Washington Hispanic Bar Association, was named the 2007-08 Washington College of Law Professor of the Year, and was profiled by the National Law Journal in May 2000.

Anthony E. Varona, Panel Moderator, New media (Shaping Social Opinions: Media and LGBT Discourse Symposium, Cosponsored by American University Lambda Law Students Association, Latino/a Law Students Association, School of Communications and GLAAD, Apr. 19, 2010).

Anthony E. Varona, Discussionist & Panel Moderator, Law Teaching in the 21st Century and moderated panel on Crisis Management and the Media (American University Washington College of Law and Kogod School of Business Conference: Practicing Law in an Interconnected World: Exploring Trends and Opening Dialogue, Wash., D.C., Apr. 8 - 10, 2010).

Anthony E. Varona, Presentation, Toward an Internet Public Interest Standard (“Reclaiming the First Amendment: Constitutional Theories of Media Reform,” co-hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Hofstra University, N.Y., Jan. 2007).

Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Out of Thin Air: Media Regulation in an Era of Technological Convergence” and “Who Decides? The Role of Courts in the Struggle for LGBT Equality (American U., Wash. Coll. of Law Spring 2006 Program on Law and Government Panel Discussions, Spring 2006).